This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and its associated factors among patients with peptic ulcer disease in Taiping Hospital. Consecutive peptic ulcer disease patients who had undergone esophagogastro-duodenoscopy were included. The H. pylori status was assessed by the rapid urease test. We excluded those who had active bleeding, a perforated peptic ulcer, severe vomiting, a history of gastric surgery, peptic ulcer disease or renal or liver diseases, carcinoma of the stomach, and recent use of antibiotics or proton pump inhibitors. Socio-demography, H. pylori status, medication history and other relevant clinical data were collected from case notes. A total of 416 subjects were selected, 49.7% were positive and 50.3% were negative for H. pylori infection. There were significant associations between H. pylori and age, ethnicity, smoking status and NSAID usage. However, there were no significant relationships between H. pylori status and gender or type of peptic ulcer. Multiple logistic regression showed that other ethnicities than Malays and smokers had a higher risk of H. pylori. Our prevalence rate was low and the identified risk factors were consistent with previous studies. Ethnic differences may be related to genetic and sociocultural behaviors. Quitting smoking may benefit peptic ulcer patients with H. pylori infection.
Dense iron-doped akermanite ceramics with 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mol% of Fe3+ were synthesized via high-speed planetary ball milling and subsequently subjected to sintering at 1200 and 1250 °C. The aim of the current work was to investigate the effect of trivalent iron (Fe3+) in tuning the physicomechanical and in vitro biological properties of akermanite. The incorporation of Fe3+ into akermanite host and sintering at a high temperature of 1200 °C resulted in a synergistic effect in enhancing the sinterability and densification of akermanite ceramics. Although varying the Fe3+ content, it was found that similar densification and mechanical properties (i.e., diametral tensile strength, Vickers microhardness and fracture toughness) were observed for the doped ceramics at 1250 °C, indicating that this newly developed formulation is temperature-dependent. Fe3+-doped akermanite ceramics revealed greater in vitro bioactivity as compared to undoped akermanite, demonstrated by better coverage of needle-like apatite precipitates after 21 days of immersion in simulated body fluid. Additionally, Rat-1 cells cultured in direct contact with Fe3+-doped akermanite ceramics showed almost double levels of cell proliferation than their undoped counterpart on both 3 and 7 days of culture. Our finding suggests that 0.9Fe-AK ceramic is a suitable formulation to be considered for future bone substitute material as it provides sufficient mechanical strength as well as good bioactivity and the ability to encourage cell proliferation.